Hey guys

After doing much extensive research, i am stuck at the p[roblem which im assuming everyone else is.

I plan to get an x38 mobo (x48 is too expensive for me at the moment ) Which is either ddr2 or ddr3.

Now everyone keeps on saying that untill ddr3 ram gets better timings it is worthless, and your better off buying ddr2.

I found a good deal for ocz reaperX 2GB 1333mhz kit. The timings are 6-5-5-18 which is awesome by my standards

Anywho, the problem is, i can get a 4gb kit of ocz reaperX ddr2 for less money, but i think going with this ddr3 will be a good choice.

What are your opinions: what should i do, get the ddr2 kit, or the ddr3 kit.

Regards,

Alex

doubling your RAM is going to get you more than having the *slight* speed boost of DDR3....get the 4GB DDR2.

DDR2! 4gb DDR2 > 2GB DDR3

So you think that ddr3 is pointless atm !?

Cos that would save me alot of monies

atm i am running xms3 memory on vista, with no paging file, with 2gb ddr3, and it proves to be doing good.

Your opinions!?

Hey guys i found this just for the sake of this thread.

" Our experience has always been that the X38/X48 chipsets simply work better when teamed with DDR3 memory. For whatever reason, we find that for absolute ease of overclock and rock-solid stability nothing beats an X38/X48 DDR3 board. Unfortunately, DDR3 prices can be a rather large obstacle for some, especially when dealing with the higher speed bins."

From http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3208

So what to do there, i am interested in getting an x38/x48 mobo

Regards

DDR2 is a better option. Don't waste the $$$ on DDR3 yet. Wait until it comes down it price and is mainstream.

well ok you talk about price:

4gb ddr2 --> £82.24

2gb ddr3 --> £111.61

So which one to do ?

Bet you by the time the price on DDR3 comes down, there will be something new in terms of ram. On Tomshardware's own site, they did a comparason of several X38 boards in both DDR2 and DDR3 versions. The DDR2 actually performed better in most cases. DDR3 will only come in to play when high levels of OC'ing are involved (high as in high FSB) or when you need lots and lots of ram and don't care about the cost. DDR3 offers better memory density... thus more memory per stick.

DDR2 for now.

Ok that is a very good idea,

I run an e8400 @ 4.05 GHZ which requires upping the fsb (obviously ) and ever since getting the xms3 modules, it has been a lot easier to achieve those speeds.

Right now i dont think 4gb would really be necessary, cos at the moment, i am running ddr3 2gb with no paging file, and it never goes above 60% Ram usage even when gaming etc.

So i dunno a bit of a pickle !

But if you really recommend me going for the ddr2 that would save me a lot of money

If i sell my current system, i can get that ram as a "free upgrade" so to speak as the money from selling would be enough to cover the cost...

Any ideas ?

e8400 (stock ~ 3.0 with 1333 FSB)
1333 FSB/4 (cuz its quad pumped) = 333 system bus.
to get to 4.05 you would have 450 (system bus) X 9 (stock multiplier)...
This would leave you with DDR2 900 spec required from your ram. No such thing as that spec, but there is a DDR2 1066... and others high enough to meet that OC. Takes some voltage, though.

Personally, if you already have DDR3 and a CPU running at ~ 4.0, stick with it. =)

well im thinking of doing a whole computer upgrade !

So its either gonna be 4gb ddr2

or 2gb ddr3 but the mobo is gonna be more expensive

So ddr2 will save me some money, but whats the o.cing potential of ddr2!

If i get the 1000Mhz modules, underclock to 900mhz, then run tighter timings... would be nice do you think with 4gb !?

Opinions ?

I would suggest DDR2, but go with 8GB, that would be worth the investment. If you try to do that with DDR3, it will be way too much money. I suggest 8GB of RAM simply because you will want to have 64 bit operating system, this is the way things will be going soon. Like it was mentioned earlier, the DDR3 does not have a huge speed gain and something else will be out by the time it is decent priced. When that happens, maybe DDR3 will be the next best option.

The only thing I would worry about is being able to do a 1:1 with the ram. If you can do that, I don't really think that slightly tighter timings will yeald any noticible difference... unless you are looking for small percentage point differences in sinthetic benchmarks.

^ + for the 8 gig and 64 bit.

With your system the way it is now, I bet you won't see much improvement from CPU upgrades. Maybe if you sunk a bunch of money into the video card(s), you'd see a noticible difference in games.

Well this is the computer i am going to be upgrading

Kepping my e8400 @ 4.05 GHz

Getting:

Asus Maximus II Formula P45 Chipset.
Ocz reaperX ddr2 4GB
Powercolor 4870 with zerotherm cooler.

Ill pay for that by selling my current system:

GA-ep35c-ds3r
xms3 ddr3 @ 8-7-7-20
9800gtx OCX

Ill see about money, and with the reaperX there is not enough sppace for 4 sticks

Regards

not a huge upgrade... If you are upgrading, then at least get a MoBo that will allow for X16/X16 CF... or SLI.

Did i miss something here? you aren't going to see much difference in these two systems. I wouldnt even bother changing, not worth the hassle.... wait for the i7

Go with DDR3 IF:
1) you can get 4 gigs of 1600MHZ+
2) the CL is lower then 9
3) you have an x48 board.
4) you have money to burn (not that there is something wrong with this. If i had the cash i would certainly have 4 or 8 gigs of this http://www.maximumpc.com/article/n [...] production )